Like us in all but sin

Our Lord took a human nature in order that he might be able to sympathize with our weaknesses. The epistle to the Hebrews contains a beautiful text on this point. It reads, “It is not as if our high priest was incapable of feeling for us in our humiliations. He has been brought through every trial, fashioned as we are, only sinless.” Our Blessed Lord in heaven is our high priest. He is our mediator. He is one who can understand us. He is not apart from us, because he had our human nature. That human nature, when it was on this earth, was so sensitive that it was thrilled by the beauty of a lily. It was moved by the fall of a wounded sparrow. It was keenly touched by anything that could touch a human heart, whether high or low, good or bad, friend or enemy. No man can be beyond the reach of that all-comprehending sympathy, because no man can ever be beyond the embrace of that love. Jesus can sympathize with the poor, because he was poor; with the weary and heavy-laden, because he has been tired and worn; with the lonely and misrepresented and persecuted, simply because he has been in that position. He can sympathize because he was tried, in mind as well as in heart, tried by fear, by sad surprise, by mental perplexity, and by the hard conflict with evil. He is able to feel to the uttermost for the keenest sorrows of our earthly lot. The beauty of it all is that this tried one is without sin. That is what enabled him to drink in sympathy, and nothing but sympathy in all sorrow, simply because he was without sin.